Chapter 18 Think Your Favorite Sports Team Observe Sports

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2. Consequences of Team Cohesiveness

a. Morale is higher in cohesive teams because of increased communication among

members, and member participation in team decisions and activities. High

Discussion Question #8: Some people argue that the presence of an outside threat correlates

with a high degree of team cohesion. Would you agree or disagree? Explain your answer.

NOTES________________________________________________________________________

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C. Team Norms Exhibit 18.8

1. A team norm is an informal standard of conduct that is shared by team members and

guides their behavior. Norms are informal and valuable because they define

2. Norms begin to develop in the first interactions among members of a new team.

Other influences on team norms include critical events in the team’s history, as well

as behaviors, attitudes, and norms that members bring them from outside the team.

Norms that apply to daily behavior, employee output, and performance evolve, letting

everyone know what is acceptable and directing actions towards acceptable

performance. Four common ways in which norms to develop for controlling and

directing behavior include:

a. Critical events. Critical events establish precedent and lead to the creation of a

norm. One critical event occurred when an employee at a forest products plant

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d. Explicit statements. With explicit statements, team leaders or members establish

norms. This can be a highly effective way for leaders to influence or change team

norms.

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VIII. MANAGING TEAM CONFLICT

Conflict refers to antagonistic interaction in which one party attempts to block the intentions or

goals of another. Of all the skills required for effective team management, none is more

important than handling the conflicts that inevitably rise among team members. When people

work together in teams, some conflict is inevitable; conflict can arise among team members or

between teams

A. Types of Conflict

1. Task conflict refers to disagreements among people about the goals to be achieved or

the content of the tasks to be performed. Relationship conflict refers to interpersonal

B. Balancing Conflict and Cooperation Exhibit 18.9

1. A healthy level of conflict helps to prevent groupthink, which is the tendency for

people to be so committed to a cohesive team that they are reluctant to express

C. Causes of Conflict

1. Scarce resources. Resources include money, information, and supplies. When

employees or teams must compete for scarce resources, conflict will occur.

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2. Goal differences. Conflict often occurs because people are pursuing conflicting

D. Styles to Handle Conflict Exhibit 18.10

1. Teams as well as individuals develop specific styles for dealing with conflict, based

on the desire to satisfy their own concern versus the other party’s concern. The major

dimensions are the extent to which an individual is assertive versus cooperative in

their approach to conflict. The following are styles to handle conflict:

a. Dominating style. Reflects assertiveness to get one’s own way. It should be used

when quick, decisive action is vital on important issues or unpopular actions such

as during emergencies or urgent cost cutting.

d. Accommodating style. Reflects a high degree of cooperativeness. It should be

used when people realize they are wrong, an issue is more important to others

than to oneself, and one is building social credits for use in later discussions.

Maintaining harmony is important.

E. Negotiation

1. Negotiation means that the parties engage in give-and-take discussions and consider

various alternatives to reach a joint decision that is acceptable to both parties.

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2. Types of negotiation.

a. Integrative negotiation is based on a win-win assumption, in that all parties want

to come up with a creative solution that can benefit both sides of the conflict.

3. Rules for reaching a win-win solution

a. Separate the people from the problem. Stay focused on the problem and don’t

attack each other.

Discussion Question #5: If you were the leader of a special-purpose team developing a new

computer game and conflicts arose related to power and status differences among team

members, what would you do? How might you use the various conflict resolution techniques

described in the chapter?

NOTES________________________________________________________________________

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Discussion Question #1: One company had 40 percent of its workers and 20 percent of its

managers resign during the first year after reorganizing into teams. What might account for this

dramatic turnover? How might managers ensure a smooth transition to teams?

NOTES________________________________________________________________________

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Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions

1. One company had 40 percent of its workers and 20 percent of its manager’s resign during

the first year after reorganizing into teams. What might account for this dramatic turnover?

How might managers ensure a smooth transition to teams?

One of the difficult experiences for companies that begin the revolution toward empowerment

and teamwork is that many employees are not comfortable in the new culture. Approximately

2. Have you experienced any of the five contributions of teams shown in Exhibit 18.2 with a

team you have participated in? Describe your experience and why you think that the team

was able to make that specific contribution.

3. Suppose that you are the leader of a team that has just been created to develop a new

registration process at your college or university. How can you use an understanding of the

stages of team development to improve your team’s effectiveness?

As a leader of an employee group charged with development of a new registration process would

be challenging. As a leader of this project, it will be important to develop stage one “forming” to

4. Imagine yourself as a potential member of a team responsible for designing a new package

for a breakfast cereal. Do you think interpersonal skills would be equally important if the

team is organized face to face versus a virtual team? Why or why not? Might different types

of interpersonal skills be required for the two types of teams? Be specific.

Although students may have differing opinions, it is likely that interpersonal skills would be

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5. If you were the leader of a special-purpose team developing a new computer game and

conflicts arose related to power and status differences among team members, what would

you do? How might you use the various conflict-resolution techniques described in the

chapter?

The leader of a special purpose team of formulating and innovating a computer game would

evolve from the creativity of this group. The intuition and idea generation would come from

6. Experts say that for teams to function well, members have to get to know one another in some

depth. What specifically would you do to facilitate this in a colocated team? What about in

a global virtual team?

One good way to facilitate team members getting to know one another in a co-located team is to

encourage participation together in activities outside of work. As members participate together

7. Think of your favorite sports team, or observe a sports team at your university. Can you

identify which members seem to play task specialist roles and who might play a

socioemotional role? What behaviors did you observe for each type of role?

8. Some people argue that the presence of an outside threat correlates with a high degree of

team cohesiveness. Would you agree or disagree? Explain your answer.

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Most students will probably agree that an outside threat does correlate with a high degree of team

cohesiveness. The reason is that people tend to draw together when threatened by an outside

9. Discuss how the dilemmas of teamwork might be intensified in a virtual team. What

dilemmas do you feel when you have to do class assignments as part of a team? Discuss.

There are three primary reasons teams present a dilemma for most people. First, people have to

give up their independence. When people become part of a team, their success depends on the

10. If you were the leader of a newly formed team, what might you do to make sure that the team

developed norms of high performance?

Students’ answers will vary. Probable answers should emphasize the following points.

A team norm is an informal standard of conduct that is shared by team members and guides their

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• Carryover behaviors: Carryover behaviors bring norms into the team from outside. An

example is the strong norm against smoking in many teams, which is a carryover

behavior developed outside the team.

• Explicit statements: With explicit statements, team leaders or members establish norms.

This can be a highly effective way for leaders to influence or change team norms.

Apply Your Skills: Experiential Exercise

This and That: Best Team–Worst Team

Students are to think of two teams of which they have been members–their best teams and their

worst teams in terms of personal satisfaction and team performance. Then, in small groups, they

will tell each other the stories of their best and worst team experiences, and then go on with the

behaviors and less negative behaviors within their teams.

Apply Your Skills: Small Group Breakout

Team Feedback Exercise

Students form groups of three to four, think about recent experiences working in teams at work

Apply Your Skills: Ethical Dilemma

One for All and All for One?

1. Vote to exonerate the three group members who didn’t cheat. You’re convinced they had no

reason to suspect Paul Colgan of dishonesty. Exonerating them is the right thing to do.

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This may be a viable option for two primary reasons. First, the professor’s policy is open to

2. Vote in support of Hank Zierden’s decision to hold each member accountable for the entire

project. The professor clearly stated his policy at the beginning of the semester, and the

students should have been more vigilant. The committee should not undercut a professor’s

explicit policy.

This course of action will send a message to students that they are accountable for things over

3. Vote to reduce each of the three students’ penalties. Instead of a zero, each student will

receive only half the possible total points for the project, which would be an F. You’re still

holding students responsible for the group project, but not imposing catastrophic

punishment. This compromise both undercuts the professor’s policy and punishes

“innocent” to some extent, but not as severely.

Apply Your Skills: Case for Critical Analysis

Are We a Team?

1. What type of team does the new CIO have? What do you see as the key problem with the

team?

The new CIO has a dysfunctional team lacking trust, respect, cohesion, and a breakdown of

genuine communication. Although, the talent pool of the team is amazing, however the team

2. How do you think the team evolved to this low level of cooperation and cohesiveness?

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Team cohesiveness concerns the extent to which members are attracted to the team and

motivated to remain in the team. Determinants of team cohesiveness are:

• Team interaction: The greater the contact among members, the more cohesive the team

will be.

3. What suggestion do you have for the CIO to help her turn this collection of individual

regional and departmental heads into a top-performing team? Explain.

Work team effectiveness is based on three outcomes:

• Productive output—the quality and quantity of task outputs as defined by team goals.

On the Job Video Case Answers

Holden Outerwear

1. Is Design Manager Nikki Brush a part of a group, or part of a team? Explain the difference.

Groups differ from teams. Although groups and teams are comprised of multiple members, a

2. What type of team did Nikki Brush participate in when she was a freelancer? What type of

team does she participate in as a full-time employee at Holden?

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When Nikki Brush was an outside freelancer working on Holden projects, she was a member of

a virtual team. Virtual teams are comprised of members who are geographically dispersed but

3. What are potential disadvantages of these teams for Holden’s apparel designers? What can

managers do to help avoid these downsides?

Answers will vary, but apparel design is highly creative work, and poorly managed teams are

susceptible to negative performance issues that can stifle creativity. Top downsides of teams